The Basic Materials group has plenty of great stocks, but investors should always be looking for companies that are outperforming their peers. Is The Mosaic (MOS) one of those stocks right now? By taking a look at the stock's year-to-date performance in comparison to its Basic Materials peers, we might be able to answer that question.

The Mosaic is one of 249 individual stocks in the Basic Materials sector. Collectively, these companies sit at #10 in the Zacks Sector Rank. The Zacks Sector Rank considers 16 different groups, measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the sector to gauge the strength of each group.

The Zacks Rank emphasizes earnings estimates and estimate revisions to find stocks with improving earnings outlooks. This system has a long record of success, and these stocks tend to be on track to beat the market over the next one to three months. MOS is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for MOS's full-year earnings has moved 54.49% higher. This is a sign of improving analyst sentiment and a positive earnings outlook trend.

Based on the latest available data, MOS has gained about 55.85% so far this year. At the same time, Basic Materials stocks have gained an average of 4.38%. As we can see, The Mosaic is performing better than its sector in the calendar year.

Looking more specifically, MOS belongs to the Fertilizers industry, which includes 7 individual stocks and currently sits at #14 in the Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks in this group have gained about 25.54% so far this year, so MOS is performing better this group in terms of year-to-date returns.

Investors in the Basic Materials sector will want to keep a close eye on MOS as it attempts to continue its solid performance.

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